Explanation of factors forming missed nursing care during the COVID-19 pandemic: A qualitative study

Abstract

BackgroundProviding nursing care to patients with COVID-19 has put additional pressure on nurses, making it challenging to meet several care requirements. This situation has caused parts of nursing care to be missed, potentially reducing the quality of nursing care and threatening patient safety. Therefore, the present study aimed at explaining the factors forming missed nursing care during the COVID-19 pandemic from the perspective of nurses.MethodsThis qualitative study was conducted using a conventional content analysis approach in Iran, 2020–2021. Data were collected from in-depth, semi-structured interviews with 14 nurses based on purposive sampling. Data analysis was performed simultaneously with data collection. Graneheim and Lundman's approach was used for data analysis, and MAXQDA software was used for data management. After transcribing the recorded interviews, to achieve the accuracy and validity of the study, the criteria proposed by Lincoln and Guba were considered and used.ResultsA total of 14 nurses with a mean age and standard deviation of 31.85 ± 4.95 and working in the COVID-19 wards participated in the study. The acquired data were categorized into four main categories: care-related factors, disease-related factors, patient-related factors, and organization-related factors. The category “care-related factors” comprised uncertainty in care, PPE-related limitations, attrition from care, and futile care. The category “disease-related factors” consisted of the extension of symptoms, unpredictable peaks of the disease, and restriction on the presence of patients' companions. The category “patient-related factors” included comorbidities, elderly patients, and deterioration of infected patients. Ultimately, the category “organization-related factors” consisted of restrictions on equipment supply, lack of human resources, weaknesses in teamwork, and an unsupportive work environment.ConclusionThe results of this study showed that several reasons including factors related to care, patient, disease, and organization cause missed nursing care. By modifying the related affecting factors and considering the effective mechanisms to minimize missed nursing care, it is possible to provide better services.

The Reasons for Unfinished Nursing Care during the COVID-19 Pandemic: An Integrative Review

“…A total of 171 studies were identified and four were included [ 16 ] ( Figure 1 ). These were all primary studies ( Supplementary Material Table S4 )—three based on a qualitative design [ 20 , 21 , 22 ] and one based on a cross-sectional design with an open-ended final question [ 23 ]. The studies were conducted in Italy [ 20 , 21 ], Finland [ 22 ] and Iran [ 23 ] in acute hospital settings [ 20 , 21 , 22 ].…”

“…These were all primary studies ( Supplementary Material Table S4 )—three based on a qualitative design [ 20 , 21 , 22 ] and one based on a cross-sectional design with an open-ended final question [ 23 ]. The studies were conducted in Italy [ 20 , 21 ], Finland [ 22 ] and Iran [ 23 ] in acute hospital settings [ 20 , 21 , 22 ]. The perspectives investigated were those of both healthcare professionals [ 20 , 22 , 23 ] and patients [ 21 ] involving from 14 [ 22 ] to 29 [ 20 ] participants in the qualitative studies and 462 [ 23 ] in the quantitative one.…”

Research on missed nursing care during the COVID‐19 pandemic: A scoping review

“…Included studies were conducted between April 2020 and August 2021 in six European countries (n = 13; Bartoníčková et al, 2022;Cengia et al, 2022;Falk et al, 2022;Gurková, Bartoníčková, et al, 2021;Gurková, Mikšová, & Šáteková, 2021;Jørgensen et al, 2021;King et al, 2021;Moretti et al, 2021;Nymark et al, 2022;Obregón-Gutiérrez et al, 2022;Senek et al, 2022;Sugg et al, 2021;von Vogelsang et al, 2021), four Asian countries (n = 8; Alfuqaha et al, 2023;Alsolami, 2021;Hosseini et al, 2022;Khrais et al, 2023;Labrague et al, 2022;Pourmovahed et al, 2022;Safdari et al, 2022Safdari et al, , 2023, two North American countries (n = 2; Edmonds et al, 2022;Qureshi et al, 2022), one South American country (n = 1; Ferreira, 2022), and one transcontinental country (n = 1; Özdeli Kara & Yaman, 2021).…”

“…We identified five qualitative studies conducted from the perspective of nurses and used semi-structured interview methods for data generation. They explored their experiences during the COVID-19 pandemic to understand its influence on nursing care (Jørgensen et al, 2021), the challenges nurses have faced (Alsolami, 2021), the changes nurses have had to introduce into their practice (Moretti et al, 2021), and the causes and factors forming missed nursing care during the COVID-19 pandemic (Safdari et al, 2022(Safdari et al, , 2023.…”

COVID-19 hospital indoor environments and how it helped patients’ recovery and staff’s work: a case study in South Korea

“…One of the critical issues arising from this situation is the shortage of beds, medical equipment, and healthcare professionals. The impact of these challenges on the quality of safe patient care and occupational performance has been recognized (Winkelmann et al, 2022;Safdari et al, 2023;Stayt et al, 2023). Studies have emphasized the importance of giving additional attention to the indoor environment of healthcare facilities.…”